Boston Marathon Bombing Scam Warning Issued

A spokesman for the Sweetwater County Sheriff's Department says there have been numerous reports from across Wyoming about a variety of internet scams which try to take advantage of the Boston Marathon bombing.

Dick Blust says within hours of the tragedy around 125 domain names were registered which included words associated with the bombing, including various combinations of the words "Boston", ''Marathon" "2013" and other terminology related to the event.

Blust says one widely used technique in many of the scams is to purport to raise money for child runners in the marathon who were allegedly injured or killed, even though children are not permitted to run in the marathon. Blust says the technique is used because people are more likely to donate if they believe they are helping children. Blust says there are several things you can do to protect yourself from such hoaxes:

Be cautious of emails and unfamiliar websites that provide links to information about the bombings, as they may contain viruses. Mainstream news websites with which you are familiar and use regularly are one thing, but unknown websites and, especially, emails, are another.

Never click on links or attachments contained in unsolicited emails.

Never send sensitive information over the Internet before checking a website’s security and confirming its legitimacy.